Fraud and forgery might cost Cape Coral man 20 years in prison

A man who lived in Cape Coral is facing a maximum penalty of 20 years in federal prison after he was found guilty of ten counts of mail fraud and one count of aggravated identity theft.

Acccording to the Department of Justice, Devin Ryan Maresca, 33, faces a minimum of two years in federal prison based on his aggravated identity theft charge.

Filing more than 2,200 fraudulent indemnity claims to the United States Postal Service, Maresca made claims that Priority Mail packages he sent or received were damaged while living in Cape Coral.

Also, Maresca forged signatures from other members of his family on USPS claims checks before depositing them into a bank account he controlled. Those checks were sent to mailboxes Maresca set up at places in Fort Myers, Cape Coral and Punta Gorda.

USPS issued more than $100,000 in claims checks based on Maresca’s fraud scheme.

Maresca was linked to the fraud from an IP address, bank and email records. Another aspect that linked Maresca to the fraud was data from USPS.

During an interview, Maresca admitted submitting more than 2,200 fraudulent claims and forged signatures from his family members on USPS indemnity checks to a United States Postal Inspector and USPS Office of Inspector General Special Agent in Dec. 2021.

Maresca’s sentencing hearing has not been scheduled.